The 88-year-old revolutionary former President of Cuba does not “trust the US, nor have I exchanged any words with them,” he says in a letter addressed to the student federation at the University of Havana. This is the first time Castro has spoken publicly since the 17 December US push for a historic reconciliation between the two nations.

The departure of the first batch of Cuban medical personnel to fight the Ebola epidemic in Sierra Leone rekindles in the mind of Fidel Castro memories of Cuba’s military support for the liberation struggle in Angola. It is continuation of the Black revolutionary tradition